2021 MFA Exhibition: Lucas Murgida | Art Museum

Event Date:

Saturday, May 8, 2021 - 12:00am to Thursday, July 1, 2021 - 12:00am

Lucas Murgida Bio Pic

Lucas Murgida
www.lucasmurgida.com

Artist Bio:

Lucas Murgida was born in Newburyport, MA, in 1976. His work has been presented internationally in performance, gallery, public, and museum contexts and has been reviewed in Art Forum, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. Selected exhibitions include Conflux, New York City; and presentations at the Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles; Portland State University, Portland, OR; and Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent, Belgium. In 2010, Murgida was an artist in residence at the Vooruit Center in Ghent, Belgium. His photographic works are in The Berkeley Art Museum’s permanent collection. In 2018–19, he was an artist in residence for the Grand Central Art Center, at CalState, Fullerton, thanks to a grant from the Warhol Foundation for the Arts. In 2002, Murgida received his BFA with honors from the New Genres Department of the San Francisco Art Institute. Murgida is a UCSB Regents Fellow and the 2021-2022 Teaching Fellow with the College of Creative Studies.

Artist Statement:

I create situations that provide audience members the opportunity to experience very private moments in very public situations. Thematically, my projects address ideas of service, perception, liberation, privacy, power, and labor by utilizing my employment as research to inform my art practice. Having dissected my careers as a professional cabinetmaker, busboy, locksmith, yoga teacher, and production assistant for adult-fetish films, I utilize the under-appreciated aspects and roles of human existence, such as furniture, locks, teachers, and service professionals, as raw material to craft my artistic experiences. Graduate school and the global pandemic have provoked several investigative threads for conceptual research, including, the use of tools outside of their intended purpose, the fetishization of safety, and the exploration of intimacy (of/by/for) the self.

During my time at UCSB, I took a back-to-basics approach and pared my work down to the bare necessities. The installations highlighted here feature videos that were executed as simple, classically styled, single point, studio performance pieces, executed for the camera. Each was shot within the specific and deliberate setting of what appears to be an art studio, institution, or gallery, but in actuality were filmed in my kitchen or in a safe off-campus location. These pieces draw heavy inspiration from work such as: I Am Making Art by John Baldessari, Jennifer Locke’s Black/White series, Bob Flanagan’s and Sheree Rose’s Visiting Hours, Stelarc’s Suspension performances, Bruce Nauman’s early video work, and Ana Mendieta's pieces done for the camera.

WORKS:

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